New Technologies/New Literacies: Reconstructing education for the new millennium

In a period of dramatic technological and social change, educators need to foster a variety of new types of literacies to make education relevant to the demands of a new millennium. My assumptions are that new technologies are altering every aspect of our society and culture, and that we need to comprehend and make use of them both to understand and transform our worlds. Introducing new literacies to empower individuals and groups traditionally excluded would require a reconstruction of education to make it more responsive to the challenges of a democratic and multicultural society. This project would involve a strong emphasis on print literacy, combined with development of media literacy, computer and information literacies, and an expanded concept of multiple literacies to help reconstruct and democratize education and society.